Family fish business lands £50,000 Aldi deal

Morag Kuc

Downies of Whitehills has landed a £50,000 deal to supply ALDI stores in Scotland with freshly prepared Cullen Skink.

The chilled Cullen Skink is on shelf now until April as part of ALDI’s Specially Selected winter range and has already picked up a national Gold Quality Food Award in the Prepared Fish Category.

Managing director of Downies of Whitehills, Alan Downie, said: “We’re especially proud of this Cullen Skink and all that goes into it.

"I personally source fresh haddock at the local markets in the north east before sending it to our smokehouse in Whitehills where we use traditional oak smoking techniques to create the best natural flavour.

"We use potatoes from Aberdeenshire in the soup and all butter, milk and cream is also Scottish. The end result is a great tasting Cullen Skink.

“ALDI have been great to work with, really supporting us to get this product onto shelves. It’s already proved popular with shoppers and we hope to work with ALDI more in the coming months.”

Graham Nicolson, Group Buying Director ALDI Scotland, said: “Working with the best Scottish suppliers is hugely important to us and the Cullen Skink we’ve sourced from Downies is a perfect fit for us. It uses great quality Scottish ingredients and, after being on our shelves for just a few weeks, has already won a Gold Quality Food Award.”

Specially Selected Cullen Skink is available in all 72 Scottish ALDI stores now.